Birthday Bagel Poetry

Before school, we went to his favorite place for breakfast and he got his favorite bagel (toasted chocolate chip with butter). After breakfast, we had some time to spare before I had to drop him off at school. He doesn’t start until 9:30. So he suggested we take a drive down to the beach. We did. And we parked the car, got out and went for a little walk. There was some good surf and a nice breeze. Lots of people out biking, walking, jumping rope. It was a cherished ten minutes together, alone, in a day that is going to unfold in a busy, hectic way.

I have to pick him up from school at 4:00. Come home for him to put his baseball uniform on. Take him over to my ex mother-in-law’s house for a quick dinner and celebration with visiting out of town cousins. One of which happens to share his name and birthday, just two years apart. Then off to a 7:30 baseball game in which he hopes to pitch. The game will end at 9:30. He’ll go back to his father’s house and hopefully fall into a deep, well deserved sleep. Fun day, nice birthday, just busy.

So this morning was our chance to be together, alone. And I cherished it. I love the person he is becoming: funny, kind, handsome, the smartest person I know.

My daughter has a poetry test today and I was helping her study last night. She’s learning about the differences in haikus, cinquains, limericks and free verse. She had to write an example of each. This is the cinquain she put on her brother’s birthday card:

BrotherMy siblingAlways very smileyLaughing all the timeFunny

She, in turn, inspired me to write a haiku about my morning with her brother:

What’s a dewlap?

A dewlap is the loose skin that hangs under the neck of an animal. Like on a lizard. Or an old(er) person. You know exactly what I’m talking about. And now you know the word for it. An everyday thing that you can’t define. Until someone defines it for you. Life is full of things like this. And so is my blog.